Spotlight On

Ola Sars is a Stockholm-based serial entrepreneur active in the music-tech space.He is the Founder, CEO & Chairman of Soundtrack Your Brand, the world's fastest-growing music platform for B2B.Before Soundtrack, he co-founded Spotify Businesses together with Spotify, a stand-alone effort to expand Spotify’s reach into B2B streaming. 2018 he pivoted Spotify Business into Soundtrack as a fully independent brand and business.Previous to co-founding Spotify Business, he was the co-founder and COO of Beats Music, acquired by Apple and transformed into Apple Music, as well as the co-founder of Pacemaker, the world's first DJ-driven music platform.Ola’s driving force behind his repeated efforts in transforming the music market comes from his conviction that music is undervalued as an art form and that the music industry offers significant opportunities for value improvement and growth. Through his multiple start-ups in the music space, he has focused on unlocking that intrinsic VALUE, both in B2C and now in B2B.Ola has been featured in Rolling Stone, Billboard, Bloomberg and is a regular in music and technology publications.Ola was named Billboard International Power Player 2021. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dave McMurray has taken a long, strange trip to arrive at his sophomore release for Blue Note Records. On Grateful Deadication, the saxophonist takes his gritty, soulful Detroit sound and reimagines the flower empowered songs of San Francisco icons the Grateful Dead with an album as vibrant as it is unexpected.For this spirited excursion into the Dead’s vast repertoire, McMurray reconvened the rhythm section that graced his 2018 Blue Note debut, Music Is Life. This time out, bassist Ibrahim Jones and drummer Jeff Canady are joined by guitarist Wayne Gerard and keyboardist Maurice O’Neal, both longtime compatriots from the Motor City scene, as well as pianist Luis Resto and percussionist Larry Fratangelo, colleagues from McMurray’s days in Was (Not Was). The album also features a special guest appearance by Grateful Dead co-founder Bob Weir,along with powerhouse vocalist Bettye LaVette and Weir’s Wolf Bros bandmates Don Was, Jay Lane, Jeff Chimenti and Greg Leisz, for a transcendent version of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter’s “Loser.”During the heyday of the Dead’s tireless touring, McMurray was on the road himself, joining now-Blue Note president Don Wasin the uncategorizable Was (Not Was) beginning in 1981. McMurray has performed with a stunning roster of legendary musicians, including B.B. King, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Bonnie Raitt, Johnny Hallyday, Gladys Knight, Albert King, Nancy Wilson, KEM, Bootsy Collins, Herbie Hancock, Geri Allen and Bob James. In 2018 McMurray joined Don Was for an all-star set at San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. The performance featured a surprise appearance by Weir, who had recently enlisted Was and drummer Jay Lane for his new band Wolf Bros, including a rendition of Dead classic “Days Between.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr. Turner joined the University of Iowa faculty in 2001 and holds appointments in Department of Religious Studies, African American Studies Program, and International Programs.His research program focuses on twentieth-century and contemporary African-American religious history and African diaspora religions in the Black Atlantic world. He is especially interested in the following areas: Islam in the United States; religion and music in New Orleans, before and after Hurricane Katrina; Vodou in the United States and Haiti; interactions between African-American religion and popular music — jazz, soul, and hip hop; black nationalism and religion; African-American religion and human rights; ethnography; urban religious experience; and globalization and transnationalism.Dr. Turner is currently working on a book project on African-American religion and music in the 1960s. He is a member of American Academy of Religion, American Anthropological Association, Association for Africanist Anthropology, and is on the board of directors of KOSANBA, an international scholarly association for the study of Haitian Vodou. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lyric Financial helps artists make their dreams and goals real, via royalty advances and smaller-scale financing through its automated vATM product, currently offered to Tunecore artists. It works with all the leading music companies, performance societies (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, Sound Exchange), publishers, labels, and distributors. The company looks at 14 months of an artist’s data and projects future royalty earnings, making a reasonable plan for repayment. Artists retain all rights, while Lyric Financial remains entitled to certain incoming royalties until the financing is repaid.Learn more about Lyric Financial.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Incub8next, a collaborative incubator project, has launched to help people and projects from underserved communities reach their full potential. Recognizing the need for tech development projects for people who have not had access to the resources, capital, connections, and experience needed to launch companies, Incub8next will work to insure that innovation knows no bounds for those in need of help getting off the ground.The Incub8next team comes from many different perspectives, with key leadership from co-founder Arabian Prince, founding member of legendary rap group NWA and a longtime tech entrepreneur himself. He has teamed with Paul Hershenson, co-founder of the innovative software development firm Art+Logic, Matthew Walk, a pharmacist and health-tech expert, and Aj Kang, a DJ and marketing maven, to form the core of Incub8next. The team hopes to supply the experience, technology, and tech know-how to seed the future of social impact technology. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Even by the often outlandish extremes of the rock world, Nettie Baker has lived a life less ordinary. Ginger’s eldest daughter grew up in the modest maisonette in which Cream were formed and where, as a child, she sat on Jimi Hendrix‘s lap, then she was fast-tracked to a world of limousines and luxury and back again just as fast.Many of those tales are now shared in Tales Of A Rock Star’s Daughter, newly available from Wymer Publishing,and via Amazon, as the first of her two-part memoir. The book is a frank, funny and down-to-earth account of exactly what it was like having music’s quintessential “wild man” as a father. It was launched at the Ealing Club in west London, the venue at whose original address all three members of Cream, and so many other future rock notables, earned their performing spurs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jeremy Sirota is the CEO of Merlin, the largest and most important organization on behalf of independent labels, distributors, and other rightsholders. In his current role, Jeremy sits at the juncture of music and technology. Under his direction, Merlin has expanded its international reach, strategically increased its membership, and added key digital services to the Merlin offering (e.g., Apple, JOOX, Snap, Triller, YouTube Shorts).Jeremy has been three times recognized by Billboard as an International Power Player (2021) and Indie Power Player (2020, 2021). Since starting at Merlin, he has delivered opening keynote speeches at multiple festivals and conferences, delivered a Strong Opinion speech at AIM, and interviewed Ollie Wards (Director, ANZ, TikTok). Jeremy also provides mentorship to startups as part of TechStar's music accelerator program (2017–2021).Prior to Merlin, Jeremy was an early hire on the Facebook Music Team as Independent Label BD Lead, working closely with independents around the world, and applying his operational knowledge to cross-functional efforts with the product, analytics, and operations teams. Jeremy rose as an executive at Warner Music Group (2009–2017), reaching SVP, Head of Business & Legal Affairs for WEA (artist and label services) and ADA (independent label services). Prior to that, Jeremy was a technology lawyer at the global law firm, Morrison & Foerster.Jeremy holds a BA from UC Berkeley, a JD from UC Hastings College of the Law, and enjoys sci-fi books and making coffee foam art. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ida Mae moved to the USA with nothing but Chris' National Steel guitar, a tin tambourine, a broken major record deal and their debut record under our arms.It was at huge personal risk they made this decision. After years of sleepless nights on the road, saying yes to every show offer we had, driving ourselves 15 hours to the next show after 6.5 weeks on the road, sleeping in dilapidated Motel's, playing in Casino bars, falling asleep in hotel lobby's, losing guitars across Europe, writing songs in the backs of cars swamped with our equipment, traveling 100,000's of miles to play shows we'll make a loss on, to then eventually meeting and playing with some of their musical heroes and being invited to play some incredible venues with artists such as Greta Van Fleet, Willie Nelson, Blackberry Smoke and Marcus King. On their upcoming album Click Click Domino the pair have pushed themselves to break new ground both as artists and producers, leaning on everything they’d learned collaborating with producer Ethan Johns on Chasing Lights as well as other top-shelf producers over the years likeT Bone Burnett (Elvis Costello, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss), M. Ward, Ryan Hadlock (The Lumineers, Brandi Carlile), Jake Gosling (Ed Sheeran, Shawn Mendes), and Mike Crossey (The 1975, Arctic Monkeys). Pre-order or pre-save Click Click Domino here.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kieron Maughan started Rockstars Cars over 10 years ago out of his love of rock n' roll and cars. He's currently working on a tv show but in the meantime you can see many of the interviews on the site and on Youtube. So far his team has amassed: 30,000 photos, both Private and public telling the stories of the cars that rockers purchased and drove. The Rockstarscars Database of known cars is currently over 1500, and growing dailyThere is a considerable Video archive, both B& W and ColourThey have been given access to manufactures archives, including Ferrari UKInteract with Rockstars Cars on Twitter | Facebook | Instagram and check out their art work collection.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nick has spent his career directing and producing feature-length documentaries about holistic alternatives to conventional medicine. Most recently, Nick directed The Tapping Solution and co-edited Simply Raw - Raw for 30 Days. His current role as producer of The Sacred Science—a documentary about explorations in the Amazon to learn about traditional, healing practices—stems from a calling to honor, preserve, and protect the ancient knowledge and rituals of the indigenous peoples of the world.Learn more about the Sacred Science on Facebook and Instagram. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.